Governor Pritzker and his team just eliminated a BILLION DOLLARS of medical debt for HALF A MILLION people.
That’s my governor!
The cost of healthcare in this nation is ridiculously high, and while Trump’s budget makes it even more expensive, Illinois is standing up to protect its people.We've negotiated the elimination of $1 billion in medical debt for 520,000 Illinoisans across all 102 counties.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) 2026-02-18T19:06:38.966Z
Baud
You’re on fire today.
Good on Pritzker. Hopefully it’ll persuade some people that there’s a difference between Dem and Republicans.
Also, too, I was today years old when I realized the correct term was Illinoisans. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Out of curiosity, what did you think it was?
WaterGirl
@Baud: I have lived in Illinois nearly my entire life, and I have never used that term.
Belafon
@Baud:
“If they didn’t want any medical debt, they shouldn’t have gotten sick.”
“Why is he only helping the people of Illinois?”
“That person didn’t deserve it nearly as much as I do.”
50% chance the second one becomes a Republican ad if he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I don’t think I’ve ever had occasion to think about it.
ETA: I’d probably suggest Illinoisians.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne: Illini?
Baud
@Belafon:
Crab bucket politics kills the crabs.
Baud
Buzz is that Iran attacks are imminent.
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oskeewowow!
rikyrah
Thank you, JB
Hildebrand
@SiubhanDuinne: When I lived in Wisconsin, the only name ever used was FIB. Not exactly for polite company.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
LOL
At least Illinoisan isn’t quite as clunky as the demonym for a person from Massachusetts, which is Massachusettsan (not Masshole, as I have always believed).
RevRick
Damn those Democrats for competing to see who can help the most people in their respective states. It’s hard to keep track.
JML
Pritzker is proof that you can be ungodly rich without being a soulless shitbag. Wish he was more the rule and less of an exception.
Once again, I blame Reagan. the decline of civic-minded business leaders started with his presidency. That’s when the real income disparities started and CEO’s started getting ungodly pay packages whether they actually helped the company grow or not. Instead of CEO’s wanting to leave a community legacy as part of their time, it was all about who could pump the stock price the most, screw workers the hardest, dodge taxes the best and walk away laughing while the media licked their goddamn boots.
Even some of the gilded age scumbags would at least try to buy their souls back when they retired with philanthropy. Now it’s about stashing wealth in fake foundations that you can use as tax dodges.
As always, fuck Ronald Reagan, an absolute disaster of a president.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: There was a controversy in Tampa long ago about what residents wanted to call themselves. Some publications wrote “Tampanians,” and others “Tampans.” The latter was considered problematic by some due to its adjacency to the name of a feminine hygiene product. I don’t know if the question was ever settled.
These days, mass media figures tend to refer to Tampa as Tampa Bay, which it is not, unless you’re talking about where the fish, manatees, rays, etc., live, rather than the people.
Belafon
@Betty Cracker: Then people could be the Baysians.
RevRick
@SiubhanDuinne: In Connecticut, we preferred being called Connecticut residents.
VeniceRiley
@JML: Exactly.
As for point Betty, I’ll call them Tampons if they don’t vote properly.
Just look at that parking lot
”What’s this now !!! Government helping its citizens? We can’t be having this ! Could end up being contagious!”
This would probably be Gov. Ron DeSantis reply when he hears this news.
Is it possible the people of Illinois would switch governors with us for a day ? Please.
Castor Canadensis
@SiubhanDuinne:
Same in French, for the plural form. Probably Illinoisien for males and Illinoisienne for females. (My french isn’t good: I’m a maudits anglais)
RevRick
@JML: There’s an absolute connection between his tax cuts and the rise of income disparity. When the marginal top rate was 90 or 70 percent, there was little incentive to gobble up more, because most would end up going out in taxes. But when the rate was slashed to 28%, the incentives to increase their compensation package soared. Suddenly, the C-Suite attained rock star status.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I like Tampanians. Could be a reality how. Meet the
KardashiansTampanians.Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Belafon:
“What about the budget?! Will my taxes have to go up because those people won’t pay their bills?!”
That’s going into the ads. <sigh> Wish I didn’t know how they think.
CaseyL
If anyone is interested, YouTuber Tom Grossi is currently doing a multi-day fundraiser for Undue Medical Debt, a charity that buys up and pays off medical debt (for pennies on the dollar). He’s raised about $400K so far, and is aiming to raise a cool $1M.
He’s playing different characters, doing movie and game show watch-alongs, and generally chatting. He’s had the VP of the organization on for an interview.
(Grossi is an established fundraiser for good causes, and he’s excellent at it. When he’s not doing that, he’s a football blogger.) (And if you need to know, he is definitely a lefty. Among other things, he’s using this fundraiser to blast the way the US does healthcare.)
$1 Million for Charity
SiubhanDuinne
@RevRick:
Here’s a list of all the official state demonyms. Excuse the raw link.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demonyms_for_U.S._states_and_territories
Timill
@Dorothy A. Winsor: How about Illinois, to rhyme with chamois..
ETA: Second syllable should be long, as Ill-eyen-wah..
Captain C
@Betty Cracker:
So, maybe for random people from the greater Tampa area we could go with Tampa Bayesians
ETA: Belafon beat me to it :^)
Timill
@Betty Cracker: Those would be Poisson rather than Bayesian…
Geminid
@Baud: Axios’s Barak Ravid posted this at 7am this morning:
Historian Aaron Astor commented:
The word “massive” is used too often in my opinion, but I think Astor is correct in this instance. We’ve been shipping air defense units to the Middle East for weeks now, some 120 large cargo plane loads. Also, a large number of fighter jets including 36 F-16s and 12 F-22s in the last 36 hours.
The buildup already exceeds the one last June before the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear facilities. This could turn out to be very expensive show of force, but I think there’s a good chance the U.S. will be at war by the end of next week, maybe even this weekend.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Iran is not a joke. It’s not a pushover. Of any kind.
Baud
@Geminid:
Well, FIFA will have eggs on its face.
Not even sure what the aim is anymore.
Geminid
@Baud: I like Tampi. Kind of like octopi.
CaseyL
The buildup to war with Iran is enraging, because the MSM will of course go into Rah Rah mode like it did for Iraq, and anoint Trump the second coming of Mission Accomplished.
Baud
@CaseyL:
Maybe, but there doesn’t seem to be much media fluffing in the anticipation of war. That’s different from Iraq, where there was a lot of foreplay.
Captain C
@Geminid: The question is if FFOTUS is dumb enough to insist that the carriers operate from inside the Persian Gulf. That could lead to a huge disaster.
WaterGirl
@Just look at that parking lot: We have had Republican governors here, so we know what’s that like.
I could never bring myself to even say the name of the most recent R governor of Illinois. How I loathed that man!
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Even your Dem governors were crappy. Blago especially.
Abnormal Hiker
@Timill: Well-played! A bilingual and mathematical pun.
Just look at that parking lot
@CaseyL: Hopefuly this administration is working on a concept of a plan about creating a plan that will possibly be implemented two weeks after an possible Iranian downfall.
Matt McIrvin
@CaseyL: A full-scale war with Iran would make Iraq look easy and probably go south more rapidly, unless Trump just does some air raids, bugs out and declares glorious victory.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Geminid would know, but I think the military assets are mostly navel and air. I haven’t heard of ground troops being in a position to have boots on the ground in Iran.
Scout211
So oranges? Or innie or outtie?
I’m sorry! I knew what you meant, but it still made me LOL.
PatD
What I would like to see is no one giving in to the rally around the flag demands from the press and the right wing if Trump proceeds with his war-mongering. He’s an unpopular lame duck and his every action should be loudly criticized. I’d keep framing it as a distraction from the Epstein files and failing to lower the cost of living.
jackmac
@WaterGirl: The one — and ONLY — good thing that ex-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner ever did came last week when he donated the famed 1948 Norman Rockwell oil painting “The Dugout” to the Art Institute of Chicago. The illustration depicts a baseball dugout and woeful Chicago Cubs players and coaches and a bewildered bat boy. Otherwise, Rauner was a worthless piece of shit as governor and we’re well rid of him.
Geminid
@rikyrah: You’re right. Those guys will shoot back, and they’ve got plenty of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to shoot back with.
People who’ve studied Iran’s leaders say they believe they can prevail in a war with the US, by inflicting unacceptable casualties on troops stationed in neighboring countries and on the sailors manning our Navy ships. And Iranians say they can close the Straits of Hormuz and keep them closed, thereby adding economic pain to battle losses.
Khameini accepts the prospect that he likely will not survive, but he believes the Islamic Republic will survive and that’s what matters. Caving into the US’s demands, on the other hand, would lead to the end of the Islamic Republic. Or at least, that’s what Khameini is said to believe.
As for Israel, the Iranians say they’ll wreck that country; that they only fired their old, crappy missiles last June but this time they’ll use their best stuff and overwhelm the missile defense. And they might be able to.
I have to wonder about their comms strategy though. The Iranians are warning that they are too belligerent and dangerous to attack. But one could conclude instead that they’re too belligerent and dangerous *not* to attack.
And Iran’s leaders know Trump from his first term, when he was very risk-averse when it came foreign conflicts. I’m not sure Trump’s that person now.
PatD
@Matt McIrvin: that’s probably what it will be. Im sure they have planned out decapitation strikes and more attacks on the nuclear and missile programs after which Trump will take a victory lap. No clue as to how Iran responds.
Eyeroller
@Baud: I always thought Illinoian since the “s” is silent. I assume it is silent in “Illinoisian” also? But I too have never seen that word.
WaterGirl
@jackmac:
So say we all!
Just look at that parking lot
“ Greetings from The Humungus! The Lord Humungus! The Warrior of the Wasteland! The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla!”.
Paul in KY
@SiubhanDuinne: The Illinii!
Geminid
@Captain C: No, they’re not gonna sail those carriers into the Persian Gulf. The Navy will probably move any surface ships in the Gulf out of it before we attack. At least, one OSINT guy said this would a “tell” that we were about to attack.
That might have been “Armchair Admiral.” Or maybe it was “The Intel Frog.” Those OSINT guys are having a field day. I can see them running out to Costco and stocking up on beef jerky and energy drinks, like there’s a blizzard coming.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: Because he’s the governor of Illinois only, dip! Not said to you, but any dip that says that.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: How about Tampaites?
Paul in KY
@Baud: Sounds like an alien race in Star Trek.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
And just like that Pritzker inches ahead in my mental primary.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@SiubhanDuinne: I love that all the states play it straight except Indiana. They are Hoosiers!
Lord Fartdaddy
Damn, I hope Pritzker runs in 2028. I think he’s going to, and, lordy, what a step up he’d be from Newsome.
cain
@Geminid:
What’s not a Republican administration without some war in the middle east. Seriously. I feel like every Republican president has indulged in this.
The only time a Dem did it in the past 80 years I reckon is when NATO went into eastern europe that one time.
cain
@Geminid: The problem for him is that he can’t just TACO. That would make him look weak, this isn’t what happened with Argentina. This would be cataclysmic. Even Bibi isn’t that stupid to start shit.
Morever though it will turn into a general war with Turkey and others joining in to see if they can tear Iran apart and get the spoils. We’ll see.
But war is going to be very very expensive. He’s going to create an economic shitshow as well especially when nobody can see the advantage of going after Iran.
Let’s not forget that Hegseth is in charge, that fool will be shitting his pants because he doesn’t have the knowledge to make decisions and every loss will make him start drinking even more until he’ll likely quit.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: Clinton had a low-level “no-fly zone” conflict going on in and around Iraq that he’d inherited from Bush the first, and it went a bit hot a couple of times. One of the reasons so many people were eager to invade and get rid of Saddam Hussein during Bush the second’s time was to “resolve” that situation.
And then in Central Asia there was that time he tried to kill Osama bin Laden with cruise missiles and everyone laughed and went “who is this Osama bin Laden jamoke anyway? It’s Wag the Dog!”
Matt McIrvin
@cain: That’s the thing, we’re not in any shape to fight a war anywhere because this guy who thinks macho aesthetics is how you win wars is in control.
I remember when those alt-right dudes were slobbering about how the Russian army could whip our asses because their recruiting ads were so much more macho than ours. How is that working out for them?
Alce _e_ardillo
@Baud: There’s plenty of history suggesting the latter, but with these chucklefucks it could spin out of control very easily.
Gvg
@CaseyL: Why? I kind of think not.people are NOT interested. Almost aggressively so? Trump has tried to get us riled up about Canada and Greenland and Argentina. Even Mexico. The population and the media mention it and go back to sleep because 1) they think Trump always chickens out AND always talks tough about everything. 2) they don’t want to believe and don’t want a war. We have been in various wars all the time since… Korea? Afghanistan and Iraq really finished most Americans interest in foreign wars off. The downside is they aren’t thinking about foreign policy when voting, the good side is I don’t think starting a war will even get Epstein or high prices out of the news. There is such weariness that I don’t think they can manufacture support for this war.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@VeniceRiley:
Make that “used Tampons” and I’m with ya…
They are red after all, amirite?! ;)
WTFGhost
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Nah, you need the proper lead-in.
“You’re well known for your opposition to capital punishment. What if it was your own family, your own wife and children, you come home to a horror scene, you try to open the door but the knob is too slick with blood…”
“What is your question?”
“It’s about the budget.”
Geminid
@cain: Turkiye will stay out of it. The Turkish Republic hasn’t fought a war with Iran since it was founded in 1923, and they have no reason to start now. The two nations have a really long border, but it’s just mountains on either side so there’s nothing much to take.
I don’t know if you follow Turkiye, but they have a very shrewd and level-headed national security team. If you look up the Wikipedia entries for Hakan Fidan and Ibrahim Kalin* you’ll see what I mean. Fidan is Erdogan’s foreign minister and Kalin is head of M.I.T., Turkiye’s intelligence agency. They work well as a team and they have their boss’s implicit trust and confidence.
If there is a war– and there might be not be one– Fidan will be someone to watch. He probably knows Iran’s leadership better than anyone else outside of Iran. Fidan has visited Tehran a lot, first as M.I.T. chief starting in 2011, and beginning in 2021 as foreign minister. Turkiye has managed to have good releations with both Washington and Tehran so they could play a role in a settlement.
Speaking more generally, it would be very risky for any neighbor to try to carve out a piece of Iran. In one form or another, that nation has existed in that space for most of the last 2700 years. It has a population of 90 million educated people, and anyone who kicks them when they’re down can count on them kicking back harder once they’ve gotten back on their feet.
* Ibrahim Kalin is also a folk musician of note. He plays a long-necked lute and sings, typically as part of a small ensemble. If you you want to hear some nice Turkish folk music you can find Kalin’s videos on YouTube.
You can also find videos of Ibrahim Kalin’s well attended lectures on Islam in the modern world. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from George Washington University, where he studied under a highly respected Iranian-American scholar. You’d need to know Turkish to get much out of them though.
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg: He needs his 9/11. They thought the killing of Charlie Kirk was it, but it wasn’t.
Geminid
@cain: As to Hegseth, he may be Defense Secretary but Trump and his close advisors know Hegseth’s limitations. If there is a war, I expect Trump will rely the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Dan Caine(sp?). It’s been pretty clear for a while that Trump and and his team have trust in Caine in a way they do not in Hegseth. And I expect Caine will rely on Admiral “Brad” Cooper, the CENTCOM chief, to run the show.
But we’ll see. I’d like to think we won’t, but I don’t think they’ll send that many military assets over there and not use them.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Reuters is a good source for reporting on this buildup and prospective war. The Wall Street Journal might be the best.
Kristine
@RevRick: Connecticutters.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eyeroller: i like Illinoian.
As I was reading the start of this thread, I thought, are Illinoisians noisy? Sets up a pronunciation nightmare..
Illini, and rhymes with chamois, very interesting options.
It matters to me, as I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, so I’m partly Chicagoan.
Chris T.
@Geminid:
Except “octopus” is from Greek and its plural should therefore be “octopodes”.
“Tampodes” sounds … odd, but then again, “Tampa” is not from Greek (it’s likely from Native American languages, and I have no idea what that would imply for pluralization…).
Anyway, if a Tampan gets all fired up, does he become tampetuous?